Laramie Rangers Let One Slip Away

A five-run ninth inning allowed the Sheridan Troopers to rally for an 8-7 victory over the Laramie Rangers Tuesday at Cowboy Field.

Laramie (28-17, 0-1) led 7-3 going into the final frame. Sheridan got a pair of hits that started the rally. A two-run single and a two-run triple tied the game. After a hit batter and an intentional walk loaded the bases, a hit batter forced in the go-ahead run. The Troopers sent 11 batters to the plate against three different Rangers pitchers.

Laramie manager Brandon Ruckman said it’s been kind of the same story with his squad.

“We’ve done that a couple times now, giving up big innings that come back to haunt us. Again, that was one of them. Sheridan had a good team… Just a couple of little things here and there that we needed to get on.”

The Rangers built their lead after a pair of three-run innings. An RBI single by Blake Moore opened the scoring in the third. David Coulthard added an RBI sacrifice fly that produced a second run on an error by Sheridan.

The Trooper responded with two runs in the fourth, but Laramie answered with three. Two more errors by Sheridan led to a run. Then Ramon Gomez drove in a run on a single, while Will Yates added an RBI double for a 6-2 lead. Jaykob Ahrenholtz RBI single in the fifth made it 7-2.

Starting pitcher Albert Steiner held the Troopers to two runs on seven hits before he left with two outs in the seventh. The bullpen failed to close it out. Gomez and Moore didn’t hold the lead. Moore took the loss, as he gave up four runs on two hits with two walks and a pair of hit batters.

Ruckman felt his team played pretty well, saying, “Albert threw a gem. He kept them off balance. Sheridan made some errors. We took advantage of those errors, and did all that we could do, I thought, and then just kind of lost it there at the end.”

Both teams finished with 13 hits. Sheridan had seven extra-base hits compared to two for Laramie. The Rangers were led by Moore with three hits and an RBI. Baty and Yates added two hits apiece.

The Troopers’ Blake King held Laramie to a run on five hits over the final five innings and got the victory in relief.

It was the conference opener for both teams.

The Rangers next action has them hosting Cheyenne Post 6 in their home finale Thursday at 6 p.m. It’s another 9-inning conference game.

Statistics from GameChanger were used in this article.